SCMP-Dam talks exclude minority gro

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Subject: SCMP-Dam talks exclude minority groups

South China Morning Post
Wednesday, September 15, 1999
MEKONG REGION

Dam talks exclude minority groups
BURMA by WILLIAM BARNES

Thai-based environmentalists yesterday accused the American organisers of a
conference of going behind the backs of vulnerable ethnic groups in
discussing massive Burmese dam projects in private.
Oregon University, in co-operation with Bangkok's Asian Institute of
Technology, asked representatives of the military regime and various
business groups to discuss ways of damming Burma's Salween river.

The organisers deliberately excluded members of the opposition or ethnic
groups from this week's Chiang Mai meeting to avoid upsetting Rangoon.

Activists claim the conference legitimises and encourages controversial
proposals to inflict potentially massive disruption on communities which
will have no veto over development.

Proposals to dam the Salween, where it runs through Shan State, for
hydropower and water diversion are likely to make the controversial Total
gas pipeline project in Burma's southern panhandle look tame, they argue.

The now-completed pipeline project has been slammed by human rights groups
for leading to the demolition of villages, forced labour and increased
repression.

Thirty-five Thai and Burmese human rights and green groups signed an open
letter this week demanding that all future talks over the exploitation of
the Salween recognise the right of local people to take part in any
negotiations.

"This meeting isn't even-handed. It's for dam-builders, not the real
stakeholders," the director of the Southeast Asia Rivers Network, Chainarong
Sretthachau, said.

The meeting has been attended by representatives of the World Bank and the
Asian Development Bank - keen dam-building institutions - and several
private companies, as well as by officials and academics.

Observers with political or environmental axes to grind fear proposals to
build a big Salween dam will acquire an unstoppable momentum if an
institution can be found to put up the money.